Abstract
The aim of this study was to determine the contribution of native arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation to growth, pigmentation and grain yield of wheat plants (Triticum aestivum L.) grown under different levels of water deficiency [DO, 100% Field Capacity (FC); D1, 75% FC; D2, 50% FC and D3, 25% FC]. The results suggested that AMF inoculation has a beneficial effect on plant drought tolerance and effectively improved biomass and crop productivity of wheat plants grown under drought. Mycorrhizal symbiosis alleviates the inhibitory effect of drought stress via improving water status and chlorophyll biosynthesis of wheat plants. Mycorrhizal colonization increased gradually and was higher at the maturity stage under a low level of drought (D1). The mycorrhizal wheat plants had higher shoot phosphorous than non-mycorrhizal plants at all samplings regardless of levels of drought stress. In general, with all treatments, the content of photosynthetic pigment fractions was inhibited as the level of drought increased in the soil pot experiment. However, the photosynthetic pigment contents of mycorrhizal wheat plant leaves were significantly (p<0.05) greater than those of non-mycorrhizal ones. The study/concluded that the native mycorrhizae alleviate the drought stress by enhancement of the process of phosphorus uptake, pigment biosynthesis and accumulation of plant metabolites and may be used as a biofertilizer.